1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical instrument introduction device employed when a medical instrument is inserted into a body cavity and a method of introducing the medical instrument.
2. Description of Related Art
Cholecystectomy and other various procedures using laparoscopy and the like are examples of minimally invasive therapies which have been carried out conventionally. In this type of laparoscopic procedure, a plurality of openings are made in the abdominal wall and various instruments are inserted through these openings.
In recent years, designs have been proposed to carry out these procedures by inserting a flexible endoscope into the patient via a natural orifice, e.g., mouth, naris, anus, etc., with the goal of reducing the burden on the patient by decreasing the number of openings made in the abdominal wall. The medical treatment endoscope disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0167680 may be cited as an example of a medical treatment endoscope employed in this type of procedure. This medical treatment endoscope has a flexible, soft inserted portion, and a pair of arms which are provided to the distal end of the inserted portion and have bending portions for performing bending actions. In addition, a plurality of channels are provided running through the inserted portion. A member is provided to the operating portion of the medical treatment endoscope for performing forward, backward, left and right bending manipulation of the arms. The user inserts the inserted portion of an instrument into the channel, attaches the operating portion of the instrument to the operating portion of the medical treatment endoscope, projects the distal end of the instrument out from the arm, and manipulates the operating portion to the front, back, left or right. As a result, the distal end of the instrument can be made to approach the target tissue from different directions in order to carry out the procedure.
Further, as a procedure which develops from the above-described procedure, a procedure has been proposed which is, first, inserting an endoscope into an abdominal cavity, and advancing a distal end of the endoscope into a thoracic cavity, a bladder and the like, and a treatment is performed therein. In this case, as for a body section used for approaching an abdominal cavity, an umbilical part where the scar of an incision is not going to be obvious is a suitable candidate. Thereafter, a procedure is required to incise walls of the thoracic cavity and the bladder with a treatment tool inserted into the abdominal cavity, then an endoscope is inserted into the abdominal cavity in order to pass through the perforation.
However, manipulation to pass the endoscope through the thoracic cavity and the like, is basically performed within the abdominal cavity. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to repeat inserting and retracting the endoscope through the perforation of the thoracic cavity compared with the operation through the perforation of the abdominal cavity. Furthermore, when the endoscope is advanced into the thoracic cavity by passing the endoscope through a perforation on the umbilical part, the space required for the insertion is large. In this case, it is not easy to maintain a position and direction of a distal end of a treatment tool which is used for the treatment, in particular when a flexible endoscope is used.